The federal government has
licensed a Colorado firm to sell extremely high-resolution satellite photographs
to its customers around the world, effectively relinquishing intelligence agencies'
monopoly on precision imagery from space.

Without public announcement,
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration granted the license to Space
Imaging Inc. two weeks ago after a year-long policy review by the White House,
Pentagon, State Department and intelligence community.

"This was so important that
it was reviewed at the highest levels of the government," Charles T. Wooldridge,
a NOAA satellite licensing official, said yesterday. "Clearly, it took us some
time to assure that all the equities of the various agencies had been addressed."

Allowing the sale of photographs
that are taken from more than 400 miles in space, yet clearly show objects as
small as 19 inches in length, represents a major development for the commercial
satellite industry and the national security community.

Starting in 2004, when Space
Imaging plans to launch its next- generation imaging satellite, everyone from
urban planners and environmental groups to foreign governments and extremists
may have access to "half-meter resolution" images of cities, airports and military
bases around the globe, down to what type of radar is mounted on what model
tank.

Ray A. Williamson, a research
professor at George Washington University's Space Policy Institute, said he
believes the government's decision to license half-meter imagery stands to make
the world a safer and more transparent place, even with high- resolution satellite
photographs in the hands of potential adversaries.

But there will be obvious
growing pains, he said. More than a few nations that have deceived their citizens
for years about secret government projects probably are already worried about
the less detailed, one-meter imagery currently available from Space Imaging's
Ikonos satellite, launched 15 months ago, Williamson said.

Concerns also persist among
some national security analysts over the possibility that satellite photos of
U.S. and allied military forces could be acquired, through third parties, by
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein or anti-Western groups in the Middle East.

But such fears were ultimately
allayed within the government, Williamson said, by the "shutter controls" established
by the Clinton administration on commercial imaging satellites six years ago.

These allow the government
to shut down commercial satellites to protect national security, as well as
any time "international obligations or foreign policy interests may be compromised."

The license granted to Space
Imaging, a $700 million joint venture led by Lockheed Martin Corp. and Raytheon
Co., also prohibits the firm from providing customers with satellite pictures
within 24 hours of the time they are taken, a delay that significantly diminishes
the value of satellite imagery in times of armed conflict, when commanders want
to know about enemy troop movements as quickly as possible.

Whatever security concerns
remain, senior military and intelligence officials supported the license, largely
for self- interested reasons. They are eager to buy high-resolution imagery
from U.S. firms to relieve some of the pressure on the National Reconnaissance
Office's overtasked fleet of billion-dollar spy satellites.

"That's exactly what it
comes down to," said NRO spokesman Rick Oborn. "On any given day, we cannot
come close to fulfilling all the tasks that are given to us."

Space Imaging's launch of
Ikonos last year was a milestone for the commercial satellite industry, producing
imagery that can resolve objects a meter (39.4 inches) in diameter, twice as
good as Russian imagery and five times better than an Indian satellite.

Because it will be sharper
in two dimensions, half-meter imagery from Space Imaging's next satellite actually
will be about four times- -not just twice--as detailed as the firm's one-meter
pictures.

Some U.S. spy satellites,
by comparison, are said to produce imagery as fine as 10 centimeters, although
their exact resolution is classified.

According to the National
Image Interpretability Rating Scales, an unclassified measurement system developed
by the intelligence community, one-meter imagery can resolve "an open missile
silo door," half-meter imagery can distinguish between "vehicle-mounted" and
"trailer-mounted" radars, and 10-centimeter resolution can resolve "the rivet
lines on bomber aircraft."

While the National Imagery
and Mapping Agency spends millions of dollars a year on one-meter photographs
from Space Imaging, the new half-meter imagery will be of far greater utility
in mapmaking and battle planning, officials said.

"When you get down to half-meter,
you're starting to get closer to the specifics of what is on the ground," Oborn
said. "Is that a tank or an armored personnel carrier? The additional resolution
allows you to discern kinds of vehicle and kinds of armament."

John Copple, Space Imaging's
chief executive officer, predicted that the new imagery would be of greatest
use to U.S. intelligence agencies and said government purchases could well provide
half of the firm's revenues after the new satellite is launched.

But Copple said urban planners,
forestry companies and the telecommunications industry also want half-meter
photographs for detailed planning and mapping. At half-meter resolution, he
said, forestry officials can count trees, and urban planners can view streetscapes,
even discerning manhole covers.